Hi all
Im going to buy a new pc in a week, 14sept, my propsed spec:

XP SP2 might upgrade to Vista Q1 2007 after SP1
intel core duo 2 e6600 ~2.4 x2
enermax 460 watt
320 or 500 samsung spinpoint and external W/D 320gb hdd
asus p5n e sli mobo
2x 1 gb of ram ddr2 800 not sure yet best company crucial?
the problem is the graphic card...

i want to try and future proof the sys as much as i can as i am going to
uni... but i want to be able to play dx10 games such as Wic, COD 4, BIA hells highway and m2tw kingdoms and MOA AB.

from what ive read many state that the current dx10 cards will not be able to handle the next gen dx10 games and i must buy vista currently £119..OUCH
i currently have a 128 geforce 5900 xt and i want to be able to play the latest games at full preferably..

i have looked at the 8600 gt xxx or the 8600 gts xfx, really unsure and

i have heard sli doesnt actually increase the performance anyway

i would also like to know if a 256 card would be sufficent to play these new games... MY BUDGET-500-600 £
Any advice would be REALLY appreciated
Kind Regards Goose

Vista SP1 comes out in the first half of 2008 (which is when XP SP3 comes out and it goes into extended support)

you want:

  • intel core2 or amd x2 (pay the extra and get the best one you can afford you will notice it). Do not under any circumstances buy a celeron , semperon or core solo.
  • t2gb ram if you plan to run vista(yes, crucial are good) - 1gb on vista runs about as well as 256mb does on xp (crappy). 2gb on vista runs about the same as 1gb on XP
  • at least a 450w psu (550 is better for DX10 cards). Graphicswise you want a geforce 8 series (the new ATI cards are iffy) and yes you need vista to play any DX10 games . DO NOT BUY HOME BASIC! (it sucks home premium is better) you need a 256mb graphics card for DX10 games (but 512 if you want to be futureproof). And yes, SLI isnt that great.

look here:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html

you should buy the 8800 or 8600 (dont get anything less or games will be bad quality)

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